Topic: Education Savings Accounts

May 2019

The state education department must administer the education savings accounts, establish a fraud-reporting system, and suspend or terminate schools that don’t comply with rules. It must produce an annual report on the number of students participating, the results of a parent survey, overall student performance and “graduation outcomes.”

April 2019

'We hope the governor reconsiders,' said Joris Ray, Shelby County Schools’ interim superintendent, about the education savings account proposal. 'I think the governor’s heart is in the right place. But on this particular issue, I think he needs to listen and have an open heart.'

The Tennessee Senate bill retains House language requiring applicants to provide government-issued documents like birth certificates, driver’s licenses, or passports. That provision could be in conflict with a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires states to offer public education to all children, regardless of their immigration status.

The latest amendment would cap the voucher program at 30,000 students instead of 15,000 as approved by House committees. And it would add back homeschoolers who were stripped out of the House bill last month to appease several representatives.

Gov. Bill Lee had campaigned on giving more educational choices to low-income families in districts with failing schools. But the original income cap was criticized for being well above what’s considered low-income in Tennessee.

March 2019

Shelby County's suburban school superintendents worry about the potential effects of vouchers on public education. While Gov. Bill Lee's proposal affects Shelby County Schools locally, suburban superintendents worry it could expand to affect them as well.

Three Democratic state legislators from Memphis say on "Behind The Headlines" that the dollar figures in Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher proposal aren’t enough to protect the per pupil funding to the public schools from which those children would exit.

The biggest difference – and most costly for parents – is that traditional vouchers would have covered all tuition costs. Education savings accounts would not necessarily cover all of a student’s private-school tuition.

Some Tennesseans say the income threshold makes vouchers appealing to families for which private school is within reach, compared to students from low-income families who may be looking to escape low-performing schools.

The Republican governor plans to pay for the program’s first year by stockpiling $25 million annually in discretionary funds for the next three years — but he’s not specifying where the money would come after that.

Gov. Bill Lee said his proposed education savings accounts would not siphon money from public schools: “For every dollar that goes with a child that leaves a school or a district, that district will receive a fill-in-the-gap amount of equal amount.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's remarks at the University of Memphis Thursday went short on budget specifics for local projects and longer on his conservative philosophy for state government, but he stopped short of saying he would sign the "fetal heartbeat" abortion bill that cleared the state House earlier in the day.

February 2019

Tennessee spends nearly $11,000 on each student’s education annually. With ESAs, parents could direct a portion of their child’s funding to the schools and programs they choose, including homeschooling, private and online schools, as well as traditional public schools.

We have an obligation to the next generation to provide them with every opportunity to be successful. That success begins with an educational system that is nimble and inclusive of a variety of options from which parents can choose.